Death Note: AZ
by wind-and-snow
Summary: A collection of one-shots revolving around L and Light. I felt like opening a dictionary and randomly pointed at a word which I used as an inspiration to write these stories. Implied shonen-ai
1. Armistice

Hi everyone. This is my first Death Note story. I hope it's not too out of character and if there are any mistakes I'd like to apologize in advance. I felt like opening a dictionary and randomly pointed at a word which I used as an inspiration to write this story,

The characters don't belong to me. Don't sue me.

Warning: implied shonen-ai

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><p>A: <strong>Armistice <strong>( a temporary cessation of fighting by mutual consent, a truce )

"One night. Am I asking for too much when I want to get one night filled with sleep and not the clanking of your keyboard? Come on L it would greatly benefit the investigation if I was fully rested for once because then I could concentrate on the case. Can't you let me sleep without the handcuffs in another room? You could monitor me during that time. Or couldn't you at least sleep during the night instead of causing so much noise?" Light was practically begging. Not that he would ever admit to doing it, seeing that he was so full of pride.

L's answer sounded as emotionless as all his other statements:

"I feel compelled to inform Light-kun that this declaration raised the percentage of him being Kira."

When the detective caught Light's incredulous look he elaborated:

"You did not only try to get rid of my monitoring, you also suggest that I interrupt my investigation so that you can sleep. And before you start arguing again, it is not the same if you stay in a different room. If you are Kira than I am sure that Light-kun is capable of eluding a few cameras and bugging devices. I won't give you the chance to commit further crimes when I can stop them."

Light being a genius, albeit a tired, short of sleep and nearly unconscious genius, recognized L's non-nonsense tone and his twisted logic. Hence, the young man decided to give up on arguing with the insomniac.

He didn't like to forfeit the discussion but he concluded that he was too dead tired to continue and on top of that he didn't want L to raise that absurd percentage.

Thus, he resigned himself to another sleepless night.

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><p>The team working on the Kira case was drawn from their respective tasks as their attention fell upon the pair which just entered.<p>

L was his usual slouching self: White long-sleeved shirt, blue baggy jeans, no socks or shoes, unkempt hair and dark smudges under his eyes. Yeah, the same as every other day.

Light's appearance however startled the officers. He looked way worse than the day before. While his clothes and hair were as flawless as always his face seemed to have aged several years. His eyes seemed soulless, glassy and just tired. Underneath his eyes there were dark circles suggesting that he hadn't slept in a few days. The violet rings gave his already pale skin an even paler and slightly sickly hue.

Compared to the perfection Light generally presented it was shocking to see the genius this worn out and exhausted. In the morning, nonetheless!

Matsuda was the first to break the eerie silence which had settled over the room as soon as the two young men had entered.

"Light-san are you okay? Not to be pushy but you look slightly sick. Maybe you should skip the work today and go back to bed."

It was than that Light understood that he actually deserved an award for his self-control because when Matsuda mentioned 'going back to bed' Light managed to hold back a hysteric laugh.

He hadn't been in bed for God knows how many days. Plastering a false smile onto his lips he answered:

"Thank you very much for your concern Matsuda-san. But I feel fine. There's nothing wrong with me so if you'll excuse me I'll go back to work."

Usually, no-one would have questioned Light. Everyone would have fallen for his sincere-looking smile, his charisma and his eloquent speaking. Usually, that is. But usually Light's legs didn't give out the way they did today so that he was forced to grab onto something in order to keep standing.

"Light!"

"Light-san, what happened? Are you hurt?"

His father and Matsuda jumped up and were beside Light in what seemed to be a split-second.

Now the young genius felt cornered. What should he say?

There was no way in hell that he would admit to nearly loosing his consciousness and falling as a result of too little sleep. That just wasn't happening. He was Yagami Light for God's sake! He'd rather die than acknowledge something as embarrassing.

It was all that freak's fault that this had happened. Light felt like killing L right now. And he wanted to make his death truly painful. Maybe he could use some of the torture devices which had been used during the inquisition in Europe?

While Light was still debating the best method to kill L of, said detective addressed him:

"Light-san did you get hurt? I'm sorry for pulling on the chain so suddenly and causing you to stumble. It was not my intention to do so but I was just eager to continue the investigation."

The brunette was dumb-founded by the detective's words. Apparently, L provided a cover-up for Light's mishap. The question was _why_?

They weren't friends per se. There was nothing the raven could gain from helping Light. So why did he do it? Light taxed his brain but he couldn't find a suitable answer.

That's when he decided to do as the old saying advised and to not look a gift horse in the mouth.

"No problem, Ryuzaki. Now then let's get back to work."

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><p>After the team had called it a day Light looked worse than in the morning. When Light caught his reflection in a mirror on their way to the room which the two shared, he realized just how much of a mess he became.<p>

His half-lidded eyes were bleary, his clothes wrinkled, even his hair was messy. The dark circles under his eyes appeared to be the most prominent feature on his face.

One look was enough to estimate that the lack of sleep preyed heavily on the student's mind.

Upon entering their bedroom Light's gaze fell on the bed.

The mattress was not too soft or too hard. The covers were comfortable and felt great to the touch. The pillow was soft and smelled great. Like lavender. Everything was of high quality as one would expect from someone as rich as L.

The bed was taunting Light.

He knew that he wouldn't get any sleep tonight as well.

It was L's fault. No matter what time he would always make some noise. Oftentimes it was the clanking of the keyboard. Sometimes it would be music. Who would have ever thought that the world's greatest detective liked alternative rock and symphonic metal?

Unfortunately, it wasn't only the sound which prevented Light from sleeping.

L had a bad habit. No, scratch that. He had many bad habits Light figured. Biting his thumb when he was deep in thought, His messy appearance. His insomnia.

The man himself was like a bad habit.

The worst however was his sugar addiction. Every night when Light was about to doze off, the raven would shake him awake and drag him to the kitchen in order to get something sweet to eat and some tea.

Once Light had snapped and demanded to know why Watari couldn't bring the food up to their room. Or why he couldn't keep it inside there to begin with.

L had mustered him with his big gray eyes and had declared as if it was self-evident:

"Having the sweets near me would just distract me from the case. And it would be unreasonable to wake Watari up in the middle of the night to get me sweets when he needs to sleep. It keeps him healthy and concentrated after all."

"What about me?"

"What about you Light-kun?"

Instead of answering Light had just sighed. Watari needed his sleep but whether Light got enough sleep didn't matter at all. Typical L-logic.

Normally, the brunette didn't give in to such screwed-up logic. But L-logic was a special entity. Arguing with L was pretty much pointless because he was more stubborn than a mule or a 2-year-old child. Light learned the hard way that debating with L would get him nothing but a raised percentage of him being Kira.

Therefore he had given up trying to reason with the other genius consequently giving up his sleep.

Changing and settling on his side of the bed Light expected to see L boot up his laptop. In lieu thereof he heard Ryuzaki, who sat beside him on the king-size bed, say:

"How about an armistice?"

Light was a little taken aback by the offer.

"Excuse me but I didn't realize we were fighting."

If he didn't know it better he would have said L was amused. He nearly snorted.

"Please stop playing dumb Light-kun. You know quite well what I'm referring to."

"Why the sudden generousness Ryuzaki?", the boy wondered.

"Your body needs rest. As does your mind. If they don't get it you will get sick. And I don't want you to get sick. You are my very first friend after all Light."

L didn't have a way with words. Maybe it stemmed from him communicating with the outside world through Watari. Or perhaps it was due to his thoughts being to complicated. Either way he wasn't as eloquent as Light.

Though sometimes he said things with such intensity and sincerity that one had to believe him.

A real smile which lightened up his whole face grazed Light's lips.

Later on the brunette would blame the tiredness and a momentary lapse of sanity coupled with unbelievable relief and gratefulness at the prospect of sleep for his next action.

He gently clasped L's shoulders and began dragging him down alongside himself into a comfortable sleeping position. When he felt the detective tense slightly as they lay there he pulled L closer to his own body in an attempt to provide some comfort.

He threw one arm across Ryuzaki's waist while his other was combing through his hair in a calming fashion.

Bestowing once again a gentle smile upon the man Light whispered softly:

"You should also sleep once in a while, you crazy insomniac. No human being can run on tea, sugar and his will forever. So indulge yourself once in a while and allow yourself to rest. It's nothing dangerous. I'm right here beside you. So calm down, relax, close your eyes and switch of that brain of yours for a few hours. If anything happens than I'm right here. Goodnight, L."

He himself was already falling asleep. Therefore he would never find out if the sweet '_Thanks_' and '_Goodnight_' he heard had flown from his dreamworld or his companion's lips.

_Finis_

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><p>So that's it for now. Maybe I'll continue this as a collection of one-shots with the other letters.<p>

Please review. I'll be really grateful for any feedback whether praise or criticism.


	2. Begrudge

Hey dear readers – if there are any – I finally wrote the next part. This one is a quite different from the 'A' because this time I tried to capture Light's God-complex and a little bit of his feelings regarding L. I hope the Light of this chapter didn't turn out to crazy.

Once again: I owe none of the characters. Don't sue me.

Warning: none

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><p>B: <strong>begrudge<strong> ( to envy or resent the pleasure or good fortune of others; to be reluctant to give, grand, or allow )

Light was not an envious person. But it's not as though this could be attributed as one of his good character qualities.

Light wasn't envious because he granted other people their happiness. To put it bluntly, he simply never cared enough for anyone to even so much as waste a thought about, whether the crowds of idiots, dreamers and his chess pieces were happy, had gained anything new or were enjoying their lives.

There was no point paying attention to something as trivial. What good were their fleeting moments of illusory peaceful days?

In the end those people were always stuck in the same place without realizing it. They lived their boring lives, did their boring jobs, upheld the boring social convention and in the end died boring lives.

Hence, why should Light feel envy towards those wretched human beings?

Moreover, Yagami Light was the best the human race had to offer. No, that was wrong considering that the young man was oh so much more than a little human.

He was perfection incarnated. Untouchable, unmatchable, unreachable in all his achievements, chains of thought and actions.

He was always above everyone else and why the others were thinking which path to take the student was not only a few steps ahead of them, he was usually waiting at the goal.

He was like a young god from Greek mythology.

His body was well-proportioned, with long and graceful limbs, while at the same time hiding well-trained muscles beneath the creamy porcelain skin. His silken hair had an exceptionally light brown colour for a Japanese.

To top it all of he possessed most alluring mocha eyes and an even more alluring smile, which charmed anyone laying eyes on him. He was an Adonis.

However, behind that seductive appearance lay a fascinating mind.

A mind which yet had to find a rival. Meanwhile unraveling petty schemes and desires, the phenomena and everyday occurrences, the feelings and true meanings behind words. Unraveling everything to the person blessed with it. Intelligence on par with Apollo.

There was no denying it: Light was worth more than those pathetic humans surrounding him. He was a divine entity trapped in a boring, imperfect world.

His claims were proofed when he found the Death Note. It was a sign for him to finally take his designated place as the God of a new world befitting of his perfection.

Thus, there was never so much as even the tiniest notion to begrudge others' happiness. It was just bitterly illogical for him to develop such feelings.

So why exactly did he feel this twinge of something unfamiliar when he saw L? Why for sanity's sake was he sometimes overwhelmed by the sudden need to be like Ryuzaki?

Sure, the man nearly matched Light's intelligence. He deserved to be acknowledged as his rival. Perhaps, even as his arch enemy.

But that didn't change one simple fact: For all his brilliant mind the detective was like a walking imperfection.

His behavior was abnormal, he was constantly high on sugar and tea, slouched, crouched instead of sitting properly, was always subjecting his thumb to nibbling when he concentrated. The list was endless. And Light hadn't even started with his looks!

Terrible, untidy clothes to summarize L's sense of fashion. By the way, did he mention that the greatest detective of their century reminded him of a drug addict? What with all those rings under his eyes, that too pale skin and hair, which defied gravity!

For all his genius Ryuzaki was naught but a big, walking, breathing, living imperfection in contrast to Light's own perfection.

Then why for crying out loud did Light begrudge L's imperfection, the feeling leaving an unpleasant aftertaste after being suppressed?

_Finis_

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><p>Sorry for the shortness of this chapter but personally I can only write so much when there's no real action or plot. I apologize if there where any mistakes I'm trying to improve.<p>

Please review. Criticize me, praise me, flame me, but please review.

And if there are suggestions or requests for a word for the next letter 'C' don't hesitate and tell me.


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